The present invention relates to a container or package designed to retain a relatively flat article in either a cylindrical configuration or in a flattened form. More particularly, the invention relates to a flexible fabric, envelope-type container for receiving and retaining a flat article, such as a newspaper, certificate, diploma, etc., which container in its capsule or cylindrical form also has a desired diameter and fastening means to hold it in this predetermined diametrical position.
Memorable occasions, such as a birth, christening, bar mitzvah, graduation, wedding, or anniversary are often preserved or remembered by retaining a souvenir which may be the daily newspaper or magazine and/or the respective formal document bearing this commemorative date. If these documents are protected from the atmosphere over a long period of time, they become faded, yellowed, or brittle, and may eventually crumble or disintegrate.
In some instances, these papers or documents or parts thereof, are preserved in sealed glass frames which are breakable or in pre-formed cylinder containers which can be extremely bulky for displaying or storing in a drawer. Both types of containers can prove to be expensive to manufacture.
There are several flat non-breakable containers known in the industry which can be formed into a cylinder and these are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,293,979 issuing on Aug. 25, 1942, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,791 issuing on Sept. 6, 1966. The former patent discloses a container for attaching and retaining a map, and includes a complicated system of strips and snaps for its rolled and flattened positions. The latter patent discloses a container for retaining fabric goods, such as napkins or placemats, between several layers of transparent plastic sheets, which along with a cover are bonded or fastened at one end to a central rigid core over which the plastic sheets and cover are rolled and tied in place by straps wrapped around the core.
These containers of the prior art in the preceding paragraph can also be very expensive to manufacture, and in the case of the U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,791 patent, can also prove to be tremendously bulky since the rigid core does not permit the container to be conveniently fitted into a storage area smaller than the rolled form. In the U.S. Pat. No. 2,293,979 patent, as well as in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,791 patent, the fastening means used to retain the container in its rolled form is such that only a fixed diameter for the cylinder can be attained. And in the instance of the U.S. Pat. No. 2,293,979 patent, if the available storage area is less than this fixed diameter, then the container will have to be pushed in or collapsed in order for it to be fitted into this limited storage area.